A clinical trial for a diet that has been shown to help patients suffering the debilitating symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is underway at UMass Medical School. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette talked to a patient about his positive experience using the diet and to two of the researchers about what they are hoping to learn about how the diet works.
Researchers are seeking to better understand how an anti-inflammatory diet, shown to be effective in alleviating IBD’s chronic and unpredictable stomach cramps, bloating and diarrhea, works by altering the bacteria that populate the intestinal microbiome. Co-investigators Barbara Olendzki, RD, MPH, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventive & Behavioral Medicine and Ana Maldonado-Contreras, PhD, instructor in microbiology & physiological systems, are looking at the intersection of diet with microbial changes in the gut to understand how the diet actually impacts bacterial communities, and the effects these microbial changes have on symptoms.
“Diet does make a difference to inflammatory bowel disease,” Olendzki told the Telegram. “What we’re trying to understand is patterns.”
Olendzki and colleagues at the UMass Medical School Center for Applied Nutrition, which she directs, developed the anti-inflammatory diet. It limits some carbohydrates such as refined sugar, gluten-based grains and certain starches that are thought to stimulate the growth of inflammatory bacteria in the digestive tract, and adds pre-and probiotics to help restore an anti-inflammatory environment.
“There’s a community of bacteria,” Dr. Maldonado-Contreras told the Telegram. “By changing the community of bacteria, we can diminish inflammation.”
The clinical trial, which is recruiting patients, is the outgrowth of a preliminary small, retrospective case study published in Nutrition Journal in which all of the patients who adhered to the diet for at least four weeks experienced significant reduction in their symptoms, and all were able to discontinue at least one of their IBD medications.
“It was like getting my life back in three months,” said Patrick Derr, a former patient of Olendzki’s who is quoted in the Telegram & Gazette.
Read the full article here and learn more about the IBD AID diet and the clinical trial here.
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